Quick NOTD and some exciting news!

Hey guys!  Today is my mom's work Christmas party and I'm her date! Free dinner and drinks, yesss! I wanted to do something a little festive on my nails, so I chose to use OPI's Danke Shiny Red from the Germany collection earlier this year with OPI's Goldeneye from the Skyfall collection as my accent nail. I really love this combo, it is so glowy and nice! This picture was taken with my phone as it is dark out now and my camera has an aneurysm in low light. Anyway!

Now for the exciting news! A couple of posts back I mentioned the Revlon Canada Selects program. I applied and crossed my fingers, and earlier today I received an email saying I had been chosen! I am so so excited! They will be sending a package soon and then I will have awesome new goodies to review for you all. Thank you so much Revlon Canada!

Have a great weekend guys! I'm off to stuff myself with prime rib. Mmmm.

Color Club Holiday 2012 Winter Affair Collection and inadvertent NOTD

Hey guys! The other day I got my very first nail mail (that I didn't buy myself)!!! My lovely friend Brenna sent me some lovely holographic polishes! I would love to show them to you but there hasn't been enough sun for me to take pictures to do them justice. So while I am waiting for a nice sunny day, I have the Color Club Winter Affair collection to show you!

I first saw these in Sally's just after Halloween and fell in love with the colours, but I couldn't bring myself to spend knowing that I could buy whole Color Club collections in Ross in the States for $8. But then! I was reading another blog by a Canadian (I can't remember which, I am so sorry!) and heard that Winners has those collections. I went with my mom and luckily found it for $15! A bit of a price increase but still better than $8/polish. My mom actually bought it for me for Christmas, but I wanted to show you guys so I snuck it away for swatches! Anyway! On to the good stuff!

Berry & Bright is a gorgeous red polish which is somewhere between a shimmer and a glass fleck. I think this is so pretty and festive! It's a nice change from the billion red cremes that come out around this time of year. This is two easy and beautiful coats with a perfect formula! So pretty.

Next up we have Glitter Wonderland, which is a shimmery purple. The base is pink toned but the shimmer is lovely and blue toned to give this colour a lot of depth. This is two coats. The formula was alright. I found it to be a little patchy but perhaps I just didn't wait long enough between coats. It's still pretty! Not something you would expect in a holiday collection, but I like that! It's refreshing.

Moving on, we have Ho Ho Holly. I LOVE this one! It's a gorgeous warm toned green packed with gold shimmer. Oh man I just love it. Two lovely and perfect coats. It just glows! Enjoy this one!

Next up is Glitter Sparkle. This polish is a warm toned purple just jam packed with purple and holo glitter. I don't really have much to say, I will let the pictures do the talking. I love it! This is two coats.

Two more to go! Next we have Winter Affair. This is a sort of maroon shimmer. It's beautiful! Perfect for the cold and dark winter weather. Not much else to say! This is two easy coats.

Last up is Snow Flakes, which is a flakie top coat. It flashes green, orange, and red. It is awesome! The flakies are nice and small and lie nice and flat. I put it over top of Winter Affair to show you guys and I ended up loving it so much that I made it my full manicure! This is one coat of Snow Flakes over two coats of Winter Affair. :)

Well, that's about it! I really liked this collection. There were some colours that are definitely expected of a holiday collection but some surprises as well! The standouts for me for sure are Ho Ho Holly and Snow Flakes. Which ones do you guys like? Also, I heard the rumour that some people have found a scented version of this collection? Weird!

Revlon Colorstay Rain Forest and Coastal Blue... and a comparison!

Hey guys! I know I've been gone for a long time and I will have a nice long rambly explanation at the end of the post, but for now I will get the good stuff out of the way!

Just today Revlon Canada posted on on Facebook that they are starting a program called Revlon Selects! If you tweet or have a youtube channel or a blog, like their page here and check out the program! You could be selected to test and review new products!

In honour of that, I have two colours from the Colorstay line to show you. First up is Rain Forest. I picked this up a while ago when I was staying in NC. It is a gorgeous yellow toned green with large glass flecks! I used two coats here and they were just so easy. No flooding, no dragging. Beautiful. :)

Next up is Coastal Surf. I love love love this colour! I was browsing Imperfectly Painted earlier in the summer and she said that everyone needs to own this polish. I love a good blue creme so I didn't need much persuading, but I was convinced I already had something similar to this. I was wrong! This is a beautiful bright creme that is just plain old blue. No purple or green tones to be found, which makes it a unique addition to my collection. I will agree that everyone needs this! Also, my hands didn't change colours from the first pictures... my camera is just awful at picking up colours properly a lot of the time so I have to do a lot of fiddling to make them colour accurate. Sorry!

When I saw Rain Forest I was immediately reminded of Glittering Garland from the 2011 holiday collection from China Glaze, so I decided to do a comparison! On my index and ring fingers I have Rain Forest and on my middle and pinkie fingers I have Glittering Garland. They are similar, but not exactly the same! Rain Forest is more yellow toned and the glass flecks are larger than in Glittering Garland. Do you need both? Well, I do! A more sane person might do with one, though. If you missed Glittering Garland and are kicking yourself for it, I think Rain Forest would be a fine substitute.

Now for the boring part: the reason I was gone. There are several, actually. The biggest one I guess was my move back home. I was in NC and got used to a whole different life down there, only to have to leave and readjust to my normal life back at home. I was lucky enough to be hired back at my old job so that was nice, but I did and still do miss my boyfriend and it makes me sad and unmotivated... blogs are a lot of work! But I feel pretty well adjusted now. Back to the grind.

The second biggest reason would be my job. Not only do I work a lot and mostly during the day (I don't really have good enough lighting to take pictures at night, working on a light box), I work in retail. Anyone else who does knows that it is unforgiving to your nails. Broken nails, torn cuticles... basically any nail horror you can think of can and will happen. When you are trying to keep your nails and cuticles somewhat nice to show the world, it is near impossible with a retail job! I just decided that I don't care though. I will do my best and that is all I can do.

I'm back now, and that's the important part. I missed all two of you who follow me! :P